So I’ve gotten 6 weeks of solid training in now and my fitness is starting to get to the level where I don’t have to worry about getting dropped, and instead I can focus on helping the team strategy on the day.

Unfortunately we didn’t read it quite right at Sunday’s Simonvlei league race. We let a break get away early that contained Geddan Ruddock and Craig Gerber, both pretty strong lads. Then we did a really easy tempo up Helshoogte, so the gap was probably still growing. Once we were over the top though everyone realised that we had our work cut out and the pace lifted substantially.

Despite a very high tempo though, the closest we got to them was about 500m, so our bunch sprinted for 6th. Then Robby got beaten by both Neil Bradford and Mark Moir, not suprising when you saw how much effort Robby put into the chase. The race was over already though, and barring any misfortune for Neil in the final race, he should keep the yellow jersey to the series-end.

I got some nice numbers out of the PowerTap. Average power for the race was 216w and normalized power was 267w. Both new highs. Then I set new PB’s for the range from 10mins all the way to 2hrs. Average power up the Hels climb was 301w for 12mins. The nice thing is that it felt pretty comfortable :) So my guestimated FTP is up to about 275w. Which is ok for my 62kg, but I’m really aiming to get it to 285-290w.

I’m missing the final league race this weekend ‘cos I’m going for a hike. The following weekend is the Double Century though, and I hope I can carry my form until then to help the team to a good time.